"The Musee d'Orsay boasts the greatest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art in the world, unparalleled in its diversity and quality. Since its opening in 1986 in a spectacularly renovated train station, the museum has welcomed more than fifty million visitors to its collection of works by Bouguereau, Courbet, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Redon, Whistler, Gauguin and other artists of the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century." "In this deluxe volume, the museum's director, Serge Lemoine, and his team of curators and specialists examine this extraordinary collection, ranging from the primacy of Academic painting through the shock of Impressionism to the rise of modern art. With 830 full-colour illustrations of masterpieces by some of the world's best-loved artists - from Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles to Cezanne's Apples and Oranges - this is the definitive guide to paintings in one of the world's most popular museums."--Jacket.